Partners
by Caderyn
Summary: DannyAiden pairing, AidenFlack friendship, DannyFlack friendship. Danny got a little wasted, so Aiden and Flack had to take him home.


**Summary: Danny was a bit too wasted to go home alone. So Aiden and Flack assisted him.**

**Pairing: Danny/Aiden, with a little bit of Danny/Aiden/Flack friendship.**

**Disclaimer: CBS and all those dudes own CSI:NY and all related characters. I own nothing besides this very odd plot.**

**A/N: I got this idea last night in the middle of forming the details of another D/A story (don't think I'll write that one 'cause it's way too complicated). This one is very much inspired by these following fics: _Memory_, by awesomepossum, which is a pretty hot Danny/Aiden story, and _A Midnight PickUp_, by Lament, which is a good Eric/Calleigh story up at the CSI:Miami section. Read them if you'd like. I also borrowed a scene from _Someone Like You_, which is a movie starring Ashley Judd and Hugh Jackman.**

**Partners**

Danny Messer was wasted.

That much was clear to his colleagues. A bunch of them had gone out for drinks after work as usual. Usually they just had a few beers and play pool, but tonight, Danny was downing shots like they were water.

Aiden guessed that it might have something to do with the distressing case she and Danny wrapped up today. He did have a tendency to show explosive emotional reactions to his cases. Aiden was just glad that Mac was still back at the lab, helping Stella with her case, and not here to witness Danny's, uh, 'irreverent stupor'. She knew how important it was for Danny to be his best in front of Mac.

Danny had just chugged down his latest shot and was now resting his head on the bar counter, motionless. He was clearly out of it.

Aiden sighed. _You're lucky to have me as a partner, Messer_. She got up from her table, walked over to the bar, and handed a couple of bills to the bartender.

"The bar is close for you tonight, my friend. Come on." She draped one of his arms across her shoulders, put her own arm around his torso, and tugged him out of his seat. Unfortunately, as anyone who'd ever been in the situation would know, Danny was deadweight and was too much for Aiden to bear. Her legs buckling, she called out to the first person she spotted.

"Yo, Flack! A little help here?"

Detective Flack rushed over from the pool table and took Danny's other arm across his shoulder, relieving Aiden off some of the weight.

"What's the matter with him?"

"'Don't know. Help me get him to a cab, will you? Get his bag."

Struggling, Flack picked up Danny's bag from underneath the stool and rested it on his unused shoulder. Together, the three of them half-wobbled, half-limped out of the bar.

On the sidewalk, Aiden let Flack support Danny as she hailed a cab. It took less than a minute for one to pull over. Using excellent teamwork, Aiden and Flack shoved the still-unresponsive Danny into the cab. After tossing Danny's bag in and slamming the door, Flack turned to go, "Now, if you'll excuse me, I gotta finish wipin' the floor with those guys from vice."

Aiden grabbed his sleeve, "Wait," she looked worriedly at the cab, "he's really out of it. I don't think he'll make it into his building. The cabbie'll probably just dump his ass on the sidewalk."

"Great, then _you_ go with him and make sure he gets home safe. I need to earn my dinner for tonight." He removed Aiden's hand from his sleeve and gave her a little salute. "God speed."

But Aiden stopped him again, "I need you to come. Danny's elevator's been broken since last week. I can't lug 160 pounds of deadweight up six flights of stairs by myself."

"But, Aiden …" He was looking forlornly back at the bar. "Can't we just throw in our chances with the cabbie? I heard sleeping outdoors will do _wonders_ for a hangover."

"You're just gonna let him sleep on the sidewalk?"

Flack looked deflated. "Fine." He and Aiden went to opposite sides of the taxi doors. As he went in, Flack muttered under his breath, "Man, Messer's gotta learn to hold his liquor better."

Inside the cab, Flack and Aiden shuffled with the unconscious Danny. They tried sitting him up by pinning his body between them, but Danny's head ended up rolling onto Aiden's lap.

"You got cash for the cab? I'm a little short" Aiden asked Flack after a few minutes.

"Hey, I told you I needed to _play_ for my dinner money tonight."

"Alright. 'Guess Danny's paying. Check his pants pocket for his wallet, will you?"

Flack glanced at Danny's, uh, 'derrière, which was slightly pressing on his, due to his slanted position, and shook his head. "I ain't gropin' him."

"Never mind. I got it," she said, taking out Danny's wallet from his suit pocket. She inspected the content and whistled. There was about eighty bucks in it.

Flack peeked at it and calmly pocketed a twenty. "'Guess he's paying for my dinner too."

Aiden stared at him. "You always steal from your drunk friends?"

"I'll hit him back tomorrow."

They spent the rest of the ride in silence. Flack stared out of the window while occasionally glancing at his watch. Finding nothing else to do, Aiden studied the snoozing Danny on her lap. For someone who's so expressive and explosive a lot of the times, Danny looked very peaceful sleeping. It almost made him look like a little boy. Without thinking, Aiden smiled and affectionately tousled his blonde hair.

Ten minutes later, they pulled up in front of Danny's building. After much more grunting, huffing, and pulling, Flack and Aiden miraculously got Danny out, paid the driver, and supported their passed-out friend into the building.

Climbing the stairs turned out to be much trickier than they anticipated. Danny somewhat regained his consciousness somewhere between the fourth and fifth floors. It didn't help much though, since the guy could barely stand. Danny did, however, recognize Flack beside him and decide to use that moment to show his appreciation.

"Yoorzatch… a good… buddy, Flackey-boyy," Danny slurred. "I feel lucky… 'onored, really… dat yool olweyz… have m'back…" He glanced at Flack's arm on his back and cracked up laughing. "Ah, have my back! Gettit?"

"Yeah, you're a real comedian, Messer." Flack retorted, eager to dump Danny's ass right there on the steps and get the hell home to catch that game.

"But zee-riously, Flack… I neve' get to say diz…. 'cuz we're s'pozed to be two tough guy and all… but I jest wonna say… Thank youu…"

And with that, Danny leaned over and give Flack a wet… sloppy… big kiss on the cheek.

And just like that, Flack seemed to receive a mysterious burst of strength and proceeded to drag Danny, as well as Aiden, up the remaining steps in record time – all the while wiping his cheek furiously with his free hand. Aiden burst out laughing at the whole thing.

In front the door, Flack was again left to support Danny as Aiden searched for the keys.

"Hurry up, Burn, before he plants another wet one on me."

"You're a 'tough guy', Flack. I'm sure you can 'handle' him." Aiden chuckled as she finally found the keys.

The three of them tumbled through the apartment as Flack and Aiden escorted Danny to his bedroom. Flack blew out a big breath of relief when they finally tossed Danny to his bed.

"Great. Let's get out of here. I got a Knicks game to catch."

"Wait. We can't leave him like that." Danny, who was losing his consciousness again, was laying haphazardly across the bed with one foot off the bed, one hand caught underneath his body, head rolled awkwardly onto his shoulder, and glasses askew.

Aiden came over and pulled his foot onto the bed. She sat down on the bed and began taking off his shoes and, with quite some effort, his jacket. She then tried to straighten his body as much as possible so that Danny could sleep in quite a comfortable position.

As she took off his glasses, Danny slowly regained consciousness again. His blue eyes sparkled as he recognized her. "Aiden…"

"Here we go again." Flack muttered.

"Ai-den…" Danny repeated, grinning. "Yoora great pardner, Aid… The best a guy cood ask fore… I neve' tell you diz 'coz we work togeder… but I think yoor super hot..."

"Uh, thanks, Danny… Now let me just get you straighten up and then I'll leave-"

"Naw, down't leave, Aid." Danny suddenly grabbed her hand and pulled her down on the bed with him.

"Danny, what are you doing? Let me go." But Aiden could only wiggle uselessly, as Danny draped his arm and leg across her body to pin her down.

"Sleeep here w'me." Danny said as he nuzzled into her neck and went back to sleep.

Flack watched the whole scenario unfold while chuckling like a crackpot. Aiden glared at him. "Flack! Can you help me out here?"

The detective looked down at her with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes, "What? And risk getting pulled into a threesome with you and Messer here? No thanks. I'm out of here. I got a Knicks game to catch." He turned to walk out of the room.

"Flack! You can't be serious! You can't leave me here like this!" Aiden shouted at the detective's departing feature, still trying to wriggle against Danny without much success.

"You two kids have fun!" Flack's voice shouted back before Aiden heard the unmistakable sound of a door being slammed. She cursed at Flack with every colorful word in her vocabulary.

She could not believe it! How could Flack leave her like this! She tried wriggling against Danny once more, but to no avail. For a drunk guy, he sure had a strong grip! She turned to look at him and tried waking him up by shaking his shoulders.

"Danny… Danny! Wake up!"

Danny's eyes fluttered open and, upon recognizing her, he smiled. "Aiden… I'm glad yoor staying with me. Lets sleep…"

As he turned on his side, he relaxed his grip slightly; enough, though, to let her break free. She was halfway up to sitting when Danny grabbed her wrist, "No… Don't go." His face was pleading and his eyes were suddenly clear, telling her that he was sobering up. "Please… Just stay wit' me, Aid."

Aiden studied him, wondering how much he knew what he was saying. A part of her wanted to stay with him – after all, hadn't she been overly worried about him tonight? – but a part of her realized that she'd be crossing a line work partners were not meant to cross.

As she looked at Danny's face, she knew that she cared for him as much more than a workmate. "Okay…"

She began to stand up and Danny tightened his grip. "Relax. I'm just taking off my jacket and shoes."

As she lie back down with her back against Danny's front, she let him put his arm around her waist and nuzzled his face against her hair.

"Goo' nite, Aid."

"Good night, Danny." Aiden closed her eyes and tried to sleep.

The sleeping twosome was woken up the next morning by sunlight streaming through the window. Overnight, their positions have shifted. Danny and Aiden were now lying facing each other, with their faces so close together that their lips were almost touching, and their hands entangled before their chests.

So, naturally, the first thing both of them saw waking up was each other. They were silent for a few moments as neither of them could think of anything to say to each other.

Aiden could see Danny's eyes clouding over as events of last night came fuzzily back to him. Panicking, he suddenly sat up. Obviously too quickly, as Danny soon felt like his head was split open by a pick-axe.

Aiden tenderly put a hand on his arm. "Easy. Those shots you downed last night are doin' their talking."

Danny couldn't bring himself to look at her. "Wh-What time is it?"

Aiden glanced at his alarm clock. "6.20. Still plenty of time to get to work. But you ain't solving any cases with that hangover. Come on, I'll fix you some coffee."

Danny wathced her leave for the kitchen but did not dare to make a move himself. He put a hand on his head. _Oh my God. What did I do?_ He closed his eyes and saw flashes of unfocused images. He remembered sitting at the bar… and then Aiden… looking down at him… lying next to him… He shut his eyes harder, guilt and shame gnawing at his conscience.

After a few minutes, he realized that he couldn't hide out in that bedroom forever. Grabbing his glasses, he reluctantly made his way to the kitchen.

He found Aiden standing next to his coffee machine, which was beginning to produce steam. She looked … like a person who slept on her clothes. Her white shirt was considerably rumpled and her hair was gathered up in a messy ponytail on top of her head. Danny looked down at himself. His white shirt was also terribly creased and he was sure that his hair was sticking out all over the place. This image of their shared domestic 'disheveledness' was new to him and he marveled at the fact that Aiden still looked good regardless.

Berating himself for ogling at his partner, he quickly averted his eyes. Aiden, meanwhile, was not aware of the so-called 'ogling' because she was too busy frowning at his bag of coffee powder.

"We gotta get you a better coffee, Messer. Stella gave me this great Italian brand call that I'll hook you up with."

Still feeling thoroughly uncomfortable, Danny nudged toward his coffee machine. "You okay with the machine?"

"Yeah, you gave me the same one last Christmas, remember? Here we go," she said as she handed a steaming mug to Danny. She took one herself and sat down across from him at the breakfast counter.

Danny sipped it gingerly and winced. Aiden was right. His coffee was crap.

"You gotta take it black. None of that cream stuff. Best cure for a hangover." She smiled at him again and he increasingly felt uneasy.

"Listen, uh, Aid…" He put down his coffee mug. "I'm so sorry about last night. I was pretty much out of it. I know that this probably sounds like a lame excuse, but I didn't realize what I was doing. I mean, I could barely remember anything. So I'm sorry if I tried to take advantage of you."

"Don't worry about it, Danny. I understand. What are partners for?" She stared directly at him. "But you want to tell me what was bothering you?"

"I just felt… sorry for that kid, having been born into that life, with no other escape. He had no choice 'cause he wasn't taught any different, and he couldn't get away from those scums 'cause they were all he had. But, at the same time, kids like him were a dime a bucket for those scums. They were expendable… worthless. And there's nothing we can do about it. I guess I just felt… powerless, useless."

"We'll get 'em. Maybe not this time, but we will. Like Mac says, 'Everything's connected.' One day, those worms'll just serve themselves up on a silver platter for us. But in the meantime, you can't let one case stops you from doing the next one, because everyone deserves justice … which is why I want you to drink up. I'm not doing all the work while you're nursing a hangover, Messer."

Danny smiled to his cup. "Thanks, Aid."

"'Wouldn't hurt if you talk to me more in the future, y'know."

"Alright… So what did happen last night anyway?"

"Don't tell me you don't remember kissing Flack?"

"You're bullshitting me."

"Nah. You were going on and on about how you appreciated and admired him as a cop and wished that you could say something about it, but thought that both of you were two tough guys, too proud to be all 'mushy'… So you kissed him instead."

"On the lips?"

"Yup. 'Looked kind of hot, to be honest."

"No way. You are so BS-ing me."

"Alright, I may have dressed it up a bit, but you did give Flack a big, fat kiss. And there was a chance that you might have pulled him down for a threesome with me if he didn't immediately haul ass."

"So, uh, what did happen between us?"

"I was straightening you up for bed when you pinned me down. Y'know for a drunk guy, you were pretty strong. If I didn't know better, I'd say you just wanted to nail me, Messer."

Danny looked alarmed, "I am so sorry, Aid. I don't know what to say."

"I'm only kidding, Danny. But you did say something very interesting to me."

"What?"

"You told me I was 'hot'."

"I said that?"

"Yup. See? I know you're secret now, Messer."

"Yeah?"

"You have a crush on me."

"What?"

"There's no use denying it. From now on, I own you. You'll be so overcome by your feelings toward me that I can get you to do anything I want. Decomps, floaters, burned vics, you do 'em all, while I get all the skulls you can find… Better say goodbye to your smell receptors, buddy."

Danny decided to play along, "Yeah, maybe in 'Aiden Land' that would actually happen. But here in planet earth, in case you've forgotten, Mac still runs the show."

"Shoot. I forgot about Mac. 'Think I can get him to think I'm hot?"

"Cleavage always works."

Aiden rolled her eyes, "Typical male."

Both chuckled at their playful banter, all the while realizing that they were sidestepping the reality that Danny _was_ attracted to Aiden.

"Anyway, not that I don't enjoy doing this all day long, but we still need to get to work and I still gotta go home to get fresh clothes."

Aiden got up and went to his bedroom to get her stuff.

As she was about to leave, Danny piped up, "Thanks again for everything, Aid. I really appreciate it."

"Well… if you really wanted to pay me back," she paused at his apartment door, "you _could_ always treat me to dinner tomorrow night."

Grinning, Aiden left before Danny could reply.

_Huh. Tomorrow night's Saturday. And dinner. Did Aiden Burn just ask me out?_

Some time later, across town, Aiden just finished showering. She'd been replaying her conversation with Danny ever since she got home.

_Did I just ask Danny out on a date?_

She looked at herself in the mirror and smiled.

_Who cares? We'll probably have fun anyway_.

Her good mood was suddenly tempered, however, when she noticed a certain mark on her neck.

_No way._

_It couldn't be…_

_A hickey?_

_What is this, high school?_

Images of Danny nuzzling her neck last night suddenly played across her mind.

_Oh, Messer's so going to get it today…_

**A/N: I ended up not liking this fic. I didn't like the direction of the plot and I got lost on some characterizations. But I powered through anyway, because I've written quite a bit and thought it'd be wasted time if I didn't publish it. Plus, there haven't been many D/A fics as of late, so I wanted to add another one. Excuse the mediocrity though.**

**A/N2: Honestly, I'm indifferent to Flack, but I wanted to experiment with his character. Plus he's the only one who can fit the role of Aiden's helper and gives comic relief. Frankly, I hate the more angsty part of this fic, but I guess you can't avoid it when writing CSI fics.**

**A/N3: I still don't know how to write Danny/Aiden's chemistry because I've only seen about 8 episodes. It probably accounts for their weird exchanges.**


End file.
